Monday, February 21, 2011

Guillen to Bat Sixth if Healthy

According to Steve Kornacki at MLive, Jim Leyland said this morning that Carlos Guillen will bat sixth if he's healthy at the beginning of the season:

“If Carlos is healthy and ready to go I’d like to bat him behind Victor,” Leyland said.He likes the thought of having a pair of veteran switch-hitters behind Cabrera to confound late-inning pitching changes and for their proven run-production abilities.

Guillen being healthy is always a big "if" but Lynn Henning writes that he is in good shape and may be ahead of schedule.

With Austin Jackson leading off, and Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez batting in the three through five spots, the question is: Who will bat second? Leyland's answer was:

“Whoever makes the team,”

What does he mean by that? He could be trying to avoid the question or perhaps he doesn't want to give any young or developing players the impression that they have won a job. Anyway, if Guillen is playing second base, then I think the obvious choice for the second slot in the order would be Ryan Raburn. In that case, the line-up would look like this:

Even if he's healthy, I suspect Guillen would only be playing second base four or five games per week. Perhaps, he would be designated hitter versus left-handed starters. This might yield the following line-up